1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to network service management apparatus, in a network system that is constructed by ATM switching network, SDH/SONET or the like, which is used in the network.
2. Description of Related Art
There arise following demands from a service provider which performs a channel resale service as business and in-company users in the network.
It is desired that services such as a VOD (Video On Demand), a Video Conference which is set on an existing network infrastructure, and the like are visually grasped and managed for them.
That is, it is strongly desired that a service using situation is related with a network resource using situation to be monitored and, for this monitoring, a path setting or the like is controlled.
Further, such a manager on the network also wishes to monitor and manage with respect to a work in the manager""s charge, for example, only to perform management which is necessary for work allocation in relation to a management work of each of customers for whom the services are provided, a management work of the whole service using situation or the like.
The network is comprised of a series of xe2x80x9cmanagement domainsxe2x80x9d having a specific responsibility and control range, respectively. Management domains are concerned with an individual service which the network provides for the customer for the manager of the service using situation. The management of the service using situation covers widely from the customer management to the management of the network resource and the various kinds of management works exist. Hitherto, there is not, however, means for combining the service with the network resource, the customer management or the like to be managed. Cooperation among systems in which the network management system is introduced has to be performed manually for the management of the network resource.
That is, the network management system of the conventional technique is designed to manage the apparatus, and is not designed to monitor and control from the viewpoint of using service.
There is an embodiment of the prior art to which a plurality of different services are provided while having the same apparatus in common. It is not, however, designed to manage the network and apparatus which correspond to every service.
Further, the conventional network management system is only a managing system for alternatively selecting whether the same managing function is provided for all of the managers or a function which the manager can use is restricted by security. There is not provided a function by which each of the managers of the system to be provided therein can freely set a function (for example, the maintenance of a specific service or the like) necessary for the work, so that effective management suitable for the actual situation of the management cannot be realized and labor and cost of the management work is increased.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and therefore has a technical object to provide a technique that enables the management of each service by paying attention to the services which are provided on the network.
In order to solve the above problems, the following conditions need to be satisfied:
(1) The management of a plurality of services on the same network resource can be performed by closely combining with monitoring and controlling the network resource; and
(2) A number of service managers can effectively execute only management suitable for each work.
As for means for satisfying the above conditions, the service management system is realized in a manner such that the apparatus has a work definition database (policy) of the service manager and converts the policy into an instruction for setting a necessary pass or obtaining monitoring information for the network or each NE (Network Element).
More specifically, the present invention includes the following means.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, in communication services which are provided on one or a plurality of networks, network managing means for managing elements, a physical link, or a path, which constructs the network, service managing means for managing the services provided on the network, and work managing means for managing a work definition of a user which is connected to the network are provided. In response to a request from the user, information from the network managing means is related to information from the service managing means and, further, the work managing means is referred, thereby generating services to be provided to the user.
By relating network information with service information, information which occurs on the network, for example, fault information or the like can be related as an influence on the services. For the user, different information can be provided depending upon whether the user is a network manager, service manager, or user. That is, information as to the whole network is provided for the network manager and only path information for which the services are provided for the service manager. For the user, only path information to the user from the server that provides the services can be provided.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, there are provided element accessing means for collecting information from the network elements as service management information generating means, domain management means for dividing the network into domains and managing the domains each of which is managed by each subnetwork manager, and multi-domain managing means, provided in every network, for setting and releasing an end-to-end communication path on the network.
Information from the network element is, for example, element information, slot information, port information, an alarm, a channel using state, routing information or the like. Specifically, those fault information is collected and is informed to the upper domain managing means and multi-domain managing means, so that a new path which reflects the fault information can be set and a correspondence relation between the path and physical network can newly be generated and can soon be reflected to the service management.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, there is provided work view generating means for generating an individual work view for the user with reference to work management information.
As for a work view, the information of each user which is requested as mentioned above is expressed by a GUI (graphical user interface), thereby enabling only the services which can intuitively be grasped to be displayed on a picture plane.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, there is provided discriminating means for evaluating validity of the work definition when a petition of the work definition from the petitioned user.
Thus, it is possible to evaluate the validity of the user.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the invention, there is provided fault detecting means on the network and fault information converting means for converting fault detection information into information within an influence range.
Therefore, the fault information can be reflected to the service information for the user. For instance, in case where a communicating fault occurs in a specific element and the escape path is set, the path information to be escaped can be provided for the user. The escape path information can be provided as graphic information by employing the third aspect of the invention.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the second or fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided fault information converting means for the element accessing means.
The fault information converting means is provided for the element accessing means as the lowest module which is the closest to the element, to thereby enable easily grasping an influence range by the fault.